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Post by Superb Owl 🦉 on Dec 28, 2020 8:58:35 GMT -5
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Post by nowimnothing on Dec 28, 2020 12:07:12 GMT -5
Mine is embarrassingly short this year. I do the majority of my reading during my lunch hour at work. Covid and a general malaise really cut into my reading time. I usually average about 16,000 pages per year. www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2020/4916108 |
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Post by Jimmy James on Dec 28, 2020 16:41:59 GMT -5
I added the ebooks from the library which I could check, but there might be one or two physical books from the beginning of the year that I missed. Jimmy's Year In Books includes seven re-reads (Star Wars / Prydain / Watership Down), don't know if we count those. Looking at Superb Owl 🦉's list, I like the contrast in readership between the Hobbit and a book on urban planning. |
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Crash Test Dumbass
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Post by Crash Test Dumbass on Dec 30, 2020 9:55:31 GMT -5
Here is me. I read a bunch of Warcraft books this year. I was going to write a Goodreads review for a couple of these books but my Kindle automatically marks them as 'read' when I finish them late at night and I only get one chance to tell it not to fucking do that, and it's late at night so I forget. Fuck you, Amazon. UPDATE: dangit, how do I make it so you don't have to be logged in? AMAZOOOOOOOOOOOON
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Post by Superb Owl 🦉 on Dec 30, 2020 10:02:01 GMT -5
Here is me. I read a bunch of Warcraft books this year. I was going to write a Goodreads review for a couple of these books but my Kindle automatically marks them as 'read' when I finish them late at night and I only get one chance to tell it not to fucking do that, and it's late at night so I forget. Fuck you, Amazon. Oh yea, I hate that too. But I think you could still go back and add reviews after the fact if you really wanted to. |
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Dec 30, 2020 11:43:01 GMT -5
Here I am: www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2020/2348122Overall, it was an average year for reading despite the limitations. Also can I just say that Goodreads' interface SUCKS when it comes to batch editing? I thought that since rating a book automatically marks it as read, it would also note the date reviewed as the date read. Alas, no - I had to go back and add date read for everything, with the page constantly scrolling up while I tried to update. I really hope Storygraph takes off so I can migrate there. |
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Dec 30, 2020 13:58:26 GMT -5
Here I am: www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2020/2348122Overall, it was an average year for reading despite the limitations. Also can I just say that Goodreads' interface SUCKS when it comes to batch editing? I thought that since rating a book automatically marks it as read, it would also note the date reviewed as the date read. Alas, no - I had to go back and add date read for everything, with the page constantly scrolling up while I tried to update. I really hope Storygraph takes off so I can migrate there. Congratulations on being the third person to shelve Shaw's Introduction to the Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism. Got to be hard to find a book less "popular" than that. |
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Post by Superb Owl 🦉 on Dec 30, 2020 14:03:52 GMT -5
Here I am: www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2020/2348122Overall, it was an average year for reading despite the limitations. Also can I just say that Goodreads' interface SUCKS when it comes to batch editing? I thought that since rating a book automatically marks it as read, it would also note the date reviewed as the date read. Alas, no - I had to go back and add date read for everything, with the page constantly scrolling up while I tried to update. I really hope Storygraph takes off so I can migrate there. Congratulations on being the third person to shelve Shaw's Introduction to the Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism. Got to be hard to find a book less "popular" than that. Even my urban planning and climate policy book by a local professor had 7 shelves! |
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Dec 30, 2020 14:09:12 GMT -5
Here I am: www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2020/2348122Overall, it was an average year for reading despite the limitations. Also can I just say that Goodreads' interface SUCKS when it comes to batch editing? I thought that since rating a book automatically marks it as read, it would also note the date reviewed as the date read. Alas, no - I had to go back and add date read for everything, with the page constantly scrolling up while I tried to update. I really hope Storygraph takes off so I can migrate there. Congratulations on being the third person to shelve Shaw's Introduction to the Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism. Got to be hard to find a book less "popular" than that. Crazy thing is I didn't read the "Introduction" I read the whole book, but I swear, when I finished it there was zero listings for this book coming up in my search. Now I see they've fixed it, so I've updated my list accordingly. Also a bunch of my reading challenge books were missing, apparently. Again, Goodreads is annoying. EDIT - a quick tally to gauge the breadth of my reading yielded the following: dead white guys: 13 live white guys: 9 BIPOC: 15 women: 12 queer: 2 that I know of (Quentin Crisp and Virginia Woolf - anybody know about the others?) |
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Dellarigg
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Post by Dellarigg on Dec 31, 2020 11:50:27 GMT -5
I don't do the Goodreads thing, so I'll cross-post this with the What Are You Reading thread:
I read 75 books, which isn't bad at all considering the libraries have been closed since the end of March, and some of these tomes were massively long (Anna Karenina, Ulysses, Drood, a load of Dickens).
Best new thing: Inside Story, Martin Amis.
Best non-fiction: Shakespeare's Wife, Germaine Greer
Best reread: Hemingway's Men Without Women, closely followed by McCarthy's Child of God.
Best thing overall: Despair by Nabokov; Nabokov has 'won' this title for the last three or four years running, I think.
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Dec 31, 2020 11:52:09 GMT -5
I don't do the Goodreads thing, so I'll cross-post this with the What Are You Reading thread: I read 75 books, which isn't bad at all considering the libraries have been closed since the end of March, and some of these tomes were massively long ( Anna Karenina, Ulysses, Drood, a load of Dickens). Best new thing: Inside Story, Martin Amis. Best non-fiction: Shakespeare's Wife, Germaine Greer Best reread: Hemingway's Men Without Women, closely followed by McCarthy's Child of God. Best thing overall: Despair by Nabokov; Nabokov has 'won' this title for the last three or four years running, I think. What is the worst book you read this year? |
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Dellarigg
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Post by Dellarigg on Dec 31, 2020 12:46:14 GMT -5
I don't do the Goodreads thing, so I'll cross-post this with the What Are You Reading thread: I read 75 books, which isn't bad at all considering the libraries have been closed since the end of March, and some of these tomes were massively long ( Anna Karenina, Ulysses, Drood, a load of Dickens). Best new thing: Inside Story, Martin Amis. Best non-fiction: Shakespeare's Wife, Germaine Greer Best reread: Hemingway's Men Without Women, closely followed by McCarthy's Child of God. Best thing overall: Despair by Nabokov; Nabokov has 'won' this title for the last three or four years running, I think. What is the worst book you read this year? Hmm. Well if it's negativity you're after, the Dennis Wheatley (The Devil Rides Out) was the worst in terms of the writing, but I still quite enjoyed it. I found The Man In The High Castle by Philip K Dick and The Little Drummer Girl by John Le Carre to be disappointing slogs, but it's not that they were bad, just not to my taste and I shouldn't have bothered with them. Then there's Saul Bellow. Fucking Saul Bellow. I started Mr Sammler's Planet but abandoned it very quickly (and therefore didn't review it). My inability to get to grips with him is frustrating, though I'm not at the point where I'm giving up and donating all his books to a charity shop like I haughtily did with Thomas Pynchon.
So I'd probably go with Trouble With Lichen by John Wyndham, because it was completely half-arsed and lazy, barely assembled into a novel at all. Heroes by Stephen Fry also felt rushed and uncared-for.
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Dec 31, 2020 13:02:17 GMT -5
What is the worst book you read this year? Hmm. Well if it's negativity you're after, the Dennis Wheatley (The Devil Rides Out) was the worst in terms of the writing, but I still quite enjoyed it. I found The Man In The High Castle by Philip K Dick and The Little Drummer Girl by John Le Carre to be disappointing slogs, but it's not that they were bad, just not to my taste and I shouldn't have bothered with them. Then there's Saul Bellow. Fucking Saul Bellow. I started Mr Sammler's Planet but abandoned it very quickly (and therefore didn't review it). My inability to get to grips with him is frustrating, though I'm not at the point where I'm giving up and donating all his books to a charity shop like I haughtily did with Thomas Pynchon.
So I'd probably go with Trouble With Lichen by John Wyndham, because it was completely half-arsed and lazy, barely assembled into a novel at all. Heroes by Stephen Fry also felt rushed and uncared-for.
is a very good name for a book, at least, you have to admit? What Pynchon novels did you read/attempt to read? |
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Dellarigg
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Post by Dellarigg on Dec 31, 2020 13:16:02 GMT -5
Hmm. Well if it's negativity you're after, the Dennis Wheatley (The Devil Rides Out) was the worst in terms of the writing, but I still quite enjoyed it. I found The Man In The High Castle by Philip K Dick and The Little Drummer Girl by John Le Carre to be disappointing slogs, but it's not that they were bad, just not to my taste and I shouldn't have bothered with them. Then there's Saul Bellow. Fucking Saul Bellow. I started Mr Sammler's Planet but abandoned it very quickly (and therefore didn't review it). My inability to get to grips with him is frustrating, though I'm not at the point where I'm giving up and donating all his books to a charity shop like I haughtily did with Thomas Pynchon.
So I'd probably go with Trouble With Lichen by John Wyndham, because it was completely half-arsed and lazy, barely assembled into a novel at all. Heroes by Stephen Fry also felt rushed and uncared-for.
is a very good name for a book, at least, you have to admit? What Pynchon novels did you read/attempt to read? It is. I like the idea of Bellow better than the reality. I did get through The Adventures of Augie March about 15 years ago, and some of it is stunningly good, but most of it had me glazing over.
I've attempted The Crying of Lot 49 more than once, Mason and Dixon, Inherent Vice, and one of the big ones, though I can't remember which one out of V and Gravity's Rainbow. Pynchon was a big influence on DFW, as Bellow is a big influence on Martin Amis, so it's mystifying why I get nothing much out of either of them.
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Dec 31, 2020 14:07:57 GMT -5
Mr. Sammler's Planet is a very good name for a book, at least, you have to admit? What Pynchon novels did you read/attempt to read? It is. I like the idea of Bellow better than the reality. I did get through The Adventures of Augie March about 15 years ago, and some of it is stunningly good, but most of it had me glazing over.
I've attempted The Crying of Lot 49 more than once, Mason and Dixon, Inherent Vice, and one of the big ones, though I can't remember which one out of V and Gravity's Rainbow. Pynchon was a big influence on DFW, as Bellow is a big influence on Martin Amis, so it's mystifying why I get nothing much out of either of them.
Haven't read Bellow or Amis, but I don't think it's all that weird that one could greatly enjoy DFW and not care for Pynchon. They both wrote big, potentially inaccessible novels with a lot of stuff going on in them, they're both known for a prose style which certainly isn't minimalist, they both mix "high" and "low" culture in their literature, and Pynchon was an obvious influence on DFW. But they're still two very different authors in a lot of critical ways. I like both authors quite a lot, but I think that finding the plots of one author impenetrable, their prose verbose, or their aesthetic not to one's liking doesn't necessarily mean that one will find this to be the case for both authors. |
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Dec 31, 2020 14:26:32 GMT -5
Hmm. Well if it's negativity you're after, the Dennis Wheatley (The Devil Rides Out) was the worst in terms of the writing, but I still quite enjoyed it. I found The Man In The High Castle by Philip K Dick and The Little Drummer Girl by John Le Carre to be disappointing slogs, but it's not that they were bad, just not to my taste and I shouldn't have bothered with them. Then there's Saul Bellow. Fucking Saul Bellow. I started Mr Sammler's Planet but abandoned it very quickly (and therefore didn't review it). My inability to get to grips with him is frustrating, though I'm not at the point where I'm giving up and donating all his books to a charity shop like I haughtily did with Thomas Pynchon.
So I'd probably go with Trouble With Lichen by John Wyndham, because it was completely half-arsed and lazy, barely assembled into a novel at all. Heroes by Stephen Fry also felt rushed and uncared-for.
is a very good name for a book, at least, you have to admit? What Pynchon novels did you read/attempt to read? ...and Trouble With Lichen is a terrible name for a book. I was on the fence about trying one of Stephen Fry's new books (last one I read was The Hippopotamus) so I'll give Heroes a pass. Thanks |
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Dec 31, 2020 20:18:50 GMT -5
moimoi Dellarigg Should I bother with The Liar? I’ve had it for a while and haven’t read it yet, and I’m probably going to be donating Laurie’s The Gun Seller (which I enjoyed a lot but, again, that was a few years ago and probably not going to reread, at least anytime soon) so maybe let the pair stay together… Yeah, I haven't read The Liar and the premise sounds fun, but both The Gunseller and The Hippopotamus were just quick, enjoyable reads to pass time. If, like me, you have a stack of quick reads to keep you off your phone in waiting rooms and the like, then you might keep it for that. |
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Crash Test Dumbass
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Post by Crash Test Dumbass on Dec 31, 2020 20:43:06 GMT -5
Tagging off of moi:
dead white guys: 6
dead super racist white guys: 2 (included above)
live white guys: 29
BIPOC: 6
women: 19
queer: 3 (that I know for sure)
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Dellarigg
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Post by Dellarigg on Jan 1, 2021 6:41:00 GMT -5
moimoi Dellarigg Should I bother with The Liar? I’ve had it for a while and haven’t read it yet, and I’m probably going to be donating Laurie’s The Gun Seller (which I enjoyed a lot but, again, that was a few years ago and probably not going to reread, at least anytime soon) so maybe let the pair stay together… I've never read any of his fiction, and I probably never will now. But he's popular, some people like him, so. Give it 20 pages then chuck it if it doesn't pass muster. |
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Post by Desert Dweller on Jan 2, 2021 2:00:26 GMT -5
Here I am: www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2020/2348122Overall, it was an average year for reading despite the limitations. Also can I just say that Goodreads' interface SUCKS when it comes to batch editing? I thought that since rating a book automatically marks it as read, it would also note the date reviewed as the date read. Alas, no - I had to go back and add date read for everything, with the page constantly scrolling up while I tried to update. I really hope Storygraph takes off so I can migrate there.
Yes, I discovered the same thing. I did a bunch of re-reads in the early months of the pandemic when the libraries were closed. I didn't add any dates to these, I just added them or changed/added ratings. When I checked in there today, apparently I only registered dates for 6 of the books I read last year. I checked through the What Are You Reading thread here, but I was just uncommunicative with books in general in 2020.
On the plus side, Goodreads tells me that the 6 books I read total over 3000 pages. Maybe I only logged the longer books since those felt like work?
Don't know whether I should actually start a Goodreads reading challenge in 2021? Maybe it will force me to log all of my books? I admit, it was helpful in previous years to actually have a complete log. Hmmm...
Edited to add: I also realized that I haven't even logged in that I started War and Peace. So, I am doing that now. Look forward to this being registered as the longest book I read in 2021!
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Jan 2, 2021 11:08:51 GMT -5
I also realized that I haven't even logged in that I started War and Peace. So, I am doing that now. Look forward to this being registered as the longest book I read in 2021!
But what if you also read all of In Search of Lost Time in 2021? |
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Post by Desert Dweller on Jan 3, 2021 1:47:24 GMT -5
I also realized that I haven't even logged in that I started War and Peace. So, I am doing that now. Look forward to this being registered as the longest book I read in 2021!
But what if you also read all of In Search of Lost Time in 2021? Goodreads would not consider those to be all one book. Though, I did actually joke about doing this in 2021, considering all my normal music activities will be cancelled until at least September.
In any case, I've already read Swann's Way. I shelved it on Goodreads in 2012, so I'm going to assume that's the year I read it? I loved the section about Swann and Odette. Like, I LOVED that section. It probably was the best literary example I've ever read of a person who sticks with someone who treats them terribly. I thought the two sections about the narrator were super boring.
And I got through about half of In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower as of 2019, when I last read any of it. I found that one slightly more interesting than Volume 1. At least as far as I got.
I had been reading the new Penguin Classics editions of these.
Edited: Ugh, I had thought the final volume was coming out this year. But no, looks like Penguin split The Prisoner and The Fugitive and is only just now publishing The Fugitive this month. Now they have 7 volumes and I don't know when the last one is being published. Grrrrr.
Still, Goodreads won't count it.
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Jan 3, 2021 8:56:06 GMT -5
But what if you also read all of In Search of Lost Time in 2021? Goodreads would not consider those to be all one book. Though, I did actually joke about doing this in 2021, considering all my normal music activities will be cancelled until at least September.
In any case, I've already read Swann's Way. I shelved it on Goodreads in 2012, so I'm going to assume that's the year I read it? I loved the section about Swann and Odette. Like, I LOVED that section. It probably was the best literary example I've ever read of a person who sticks with someone who treats them terribly. I thought the two sections about the narrator were super boring.
And I got through about half of In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower as of 2019, when I last read any of it. I found that one slightly more interesting than Volume 1. At least as far as I got.
I had been reading the new Penguin Classics editions of these.
Edited: Ugh, I had thought the final volume was coming out this year. But no, looks like Penguin split The Prisoner and The Fugitive and is only just now publishing The Fugitive this month. Now they have 7 volumes and I don't know when the last one is being published. Grrrrr.
Still, Goodreads won't count it.
Which is the one with all the madeleines? |
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Post by Desert Dweller on Jan 3, 2021 18:23:33 GMT -5
[re: In Search of Lost Time] Goodreads would not consider those to be all one book. Though, I did actually joke about doing this in 2021, considering all my normal music activities will be cancelled until at least September.
Which is the one with all the madeleines?
Swann's Way. Volume 1. This is all the stuff in section 1 and section 3, which are about the narrator remembering things from his youth. Which I found super boring. Though, if you want to read Proust beautifully describe flowers for, like, dozens of pages, then this is the book for you.
Section 2 has the description of Swann's continuing obsession with a woman who clearly loathes him. This section is fantastic. I can't recall the last time I've seen a fiction writer describe this kind of toxic relationship so well. I've actually read this section several times.
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Jan 3, 2021 19:50:24 GMT -5
Which is the one with all the madeleines?
Swann's Way. Volume 1. This is all the stuff in section 1 and section 3, which are about the narrator remembering things from his youth. Which I found super boring. Though, if you want to read Proust beautifully describe flowers for, like, dozens of pages, then this is the book for you.
Section 2 has the description of Swann's continuing obsession with a woman who clearly loathes him. This section is fantastic. I can't recall the last time I've seen a fiction writer describe this kind of toxic relationship so well. I've actually read this section several times.
Indeed, I got 75 pages into Volume 1 and that was enough for me. How does Section 2 compare to Madame Bovary, which has my thus-far favorite depiction of a one-side relationship? |
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Post by Desert Dweller on Jan 3, 2021 20:00:20 GMT -5
Swann's Way. Volume 1. This is all the stuff in section 1 and section 3, which are about the narrator remembering things from his youth. Which I found super boring. Though, if you want to read Proust beautifully describe flowers for, like, dozens of pages, then this is the book for you.
Section 2 has the description of Swann's continuing obsession with a woman who clearly loathes him. This section is fantastic. I can't recall the last time I've seen a fiction writer describe this kind of toxic relationship so well. I've actually read this section several times.
Indeed, I got 75 pages into Volume 1 and that was enough for me. How does Section 2 compare to Madame Bovary, which has my thus-far favorite depiction of a one-side relationship? Oh, I'd highly recommend you go back to Swann's Way and read the middle section that is actually about Swann and Odette. It is totally different than the opening section. This is what is convinced me to move ahead into volume 2.
I haven't actually ever finished Madame Bovary. I always got bored about 1/3 through. I did pick up Lydia Davis's translation a couple years ago based on the strong reviews. I'll add it to my 2021 list and get back to you. Maybe I'll take it to work with me to read over lunch, since I definitely cannot lug that massive War and Peace edition around with me.
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Post by Superb Owl 🦉 on Jan 4, 2021 17:23:53 GMT -5
I thought I'd try to break this down as well. Funnily enough, even though I read multiple books by some authors and some authors hit multiple categories, it still added up to 82, same as the number of overall books:
Dead White Guys: 7
Living White Guys: 22
BIPOC: 21
Women: 27
LGBTQ (to best of knowledge): 5
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